Cynthia Anderson said burns to woman's back were caused by hot shower

The photographs tell a story of immense suffering by a woman Cynthia Anderson said she considered a friend.

As assistant Crown attorney Fraser Ball reviewed the photos showing extreme burns to the woman’s legs, private parts shoulder and back, the woman on trial for torture glanced quickly a couple times over at her fiance and co-accused, Jonathon Rick, in the prisoner’s box.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen those injuries,” she said, adding she only knew about a wound on the woman’s back that she was told was caused by hot water in the shower at their south London apartment.

Anderson was the only defendant to testify during the defence phase of the trial. Rick’s lawyer, Antin Jaremchuk opted not to call his client to testify.

Two other witnesses, whose identities are protected by court order, testified they were close to the couple and the woman and insisted they never saw any problems. One of the witnesses said the woman habitually lied and had found herself in risky situations after communicating on dating chat lines.

The focus, however, was Anderson, a woman with long crimped hair and wire-rimmed glasses who gave flat answers to a host of questions.

There were no whippings, scaldings, burns or sexual assaults, she insisted through questions from her defence lawyer Wally Libis.

Superior Court Justice Lynne Leitch learned that Anderson was the mother to five children. She gave up her two sons to their different fathers and three daughters live with a relative.

As a teenager, she tried to kill herself by jumping out a fifth-floor window. She was in a car accident where her high school sweetheart was killed.

Anderson has a mild form of multiple sclerosis, requires a special diet and takes anti-depressants. She lives on a disability pension.

She and Rick hooked up after she moved back to London and the woman was living with her.

Anderson said there were no restrictions on the woman and they often socialized with others together.

She admitted she threw out the woman’s toddler bed mattress before they moved to the south London apartment because the woman had urinated on it many times. They bought her an air mattress and a sleeping bag about two weeks after they moved. She denied locking her in a storage closet.

Anderson agreed the woman was child-like. They tried to teach her how to cook, and look after her money. Anderson said she would remind the woman when she had to shower. If she wanted to go out, they asked that she leave them a note.

Anderson said she became aware of the injury on the woman’s back after the woman complained it hurt, but never saw any other problems.

“It happened in the shower. She had it too hot in the shower,” she said.

Anderson tried to treat it with rubbing alcohol, Polysporin and gauze. She said she encouraged the woman to get outside medical treatment but she wouldn’t go over fears she would never be allowed to leave the hospital.

“It’s not my fault. I kept asking her to go and she wouldn’t go. I can’t make her go,” Anderson said.

She admitted to Ball she never called anyone to help the woman.

When Rick proposed marriage a couple months before their arrests, Anderson said the woman wasn’t happy because she said she had feelings for Rick. The woman was also told she would have to move out and Anderson said she could go back to her family. Ball pointed out, where the woman had been sexually abused by relatives.

Ball showed Anderson a police photo of the crumpled sleeping bag on the living room floor with an “absolutely filthy” pillow where the woman slept. “I was going to wash it that night when I came home,” Anderson said.

Ball said the woman was compliant at all times and “wouldn’t say anything, wouldn’t do anything wouldn’t tell anyone.”

That made her the perfect target for abuse and taking advantage of her sexually and Anderson was a willing participant — holding the woman down for scaldings in the bathtub, wrapping tape around the woman’s mouth so she wouldn’t scream and punishing her for not performing a sex act.

“It didn’t happen,” Anderson said.

Closing arguments are expected Friday.

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THE CASE IN A NUTSHELL

Johnathon Rick, 38, and Cynthia Anderson, 36, have pleaded not guilty to a collective 11 charges including aggravated sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement after police discovered a 27-year old woman in a south London apartment suffering from a host of injuries in August, 2011. The woman was their room mate and suffers from cerebral palsy and a slight intellectual delay. She had burns to 19% of her body from scaldings she said came from water poured from a kettle and told the police of whippings, beatings and sexual assaults

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